Detergent compositions



United States Patent W DETERGENT COMPOSITIONS Alan Dalton Scott, Bebington, England, assignor to Lever Brothers Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Maine No Drawing. Application May 7, 1952, Serial No. 286,632.

Claims priorh application Great Britain May 15, 195.1

5 Claims. or. 252-138) This invention relates to organic ionic soapless detergent compositions and has particular reference .to improving their lathering properties. I

It has been discovered that certain acylphenols and some of their derivatives can increase the persistence of the lather of many ionic soapless detergent compositions during washing at the concentrations of detergent normally employed.

The present invention provides, therefore, a detergent composition containing an organic ionic soapless detergent and a compound which will improve the persistence, during washing, of the lather given by aqueous solutions of the composition at the concentrations of detergent normally employed, said compound being selected from the group consisting of acylphenols of the general formula and monoether derivatives thereof with polyhydric alcohols, the group RCO- being an acyl group derived from a fatty acid and containing in all between 6 and 10 carbon atoms, and Ar being an aromatic nucleus.

The acyl group may be in the ortho, metaor paraposition to the hydroxyl or ether group. It has been found, however, that the para-isomers are generally the most efficient.

It is preferred to use compounds in which Ar represents a benzene nucleus. This may be further substituted, for example, by hydroxyl groups. Acylresorcinol ether derivatives have been found to be particularly efficient.

Although the ether derivatives can be considered structurally as being derived from polyhydric alcohols, the invention is not limited to the use of compounds actually prepared from the alcohols. Compounds of this type may be made, for example, by direct reaction between the acylphenol and one or more mols of ethylene oxide.

The ether derivatives can be represented by the general formula RCO--ArOROH The --ROH group should preferably contain no more than carbon atoms nor more than 5' in any one uninterrupted chain of carbon atoms, and not more than 2,768,956 Patented Oct. 30, 1956 p-Caprylylphenyl monoethylene glycol ether p-Caprylylphenyl mono-alpha-glycerol ether p-Caprylphenyl mono-alpha-glycerol ether p-Caprylylresorcinol mono-alpha-glycerol ether H p-Caprylylresorcinol monoethylene glycol ether p-Caprylylresorcinol diethylene glycol ether The method of preparation of the compounds is not a feature of the invention. They may be prepared by any known method. As an example, applicable to the phenols, there may be given the reaction of the requisite carboxylic acid chloride with the required phenol by the Friedel-Crafts reaction. The ethers of the acylphenols may be prepared, for instance, by treating the appropriate acylphenol with the requisite chlorhydrin under alkaline conditions. It is often convenient to use according to the invention a mixture of compounds, for instance such as will result from the treatment of mixed acylphenols. Such mixtures may contain acyl groups of varying sizes or may be isomeric mixtures. Alternatively,

one particular compound may besynthesized and used 6 oxygen atoms. In general, it is preferred to use ether p-Caprylylphenol CH3-(CHg)s-C 00-011 p-Caprylphenol ens-(011984100011 as such or in admixture with other compounds according to the invention.

Amongst the factors governing the proportion of compounds which may usefully be incorporated in a detergent composition according to the invention there may be mentioned: the particular compoundor mixture of compounds to be added and the nature of the detergent, of any builders and diluents pre'sent and of the water in which the composition is to be used. Very simple tests will show in any particular case what proportions may usefully be employed. The minimum amount necessary to achieve an improvement usually lies above 1% by weight of the organic ionic detergent. While in some cases amounts up to 50% or more may give substantial improvement, it has been found that in some cases too great an amount may be disadvantageous. It has been found that for each composition there is arestricted range of proportions of lather-improving compound which gives maximum improvement in lather persistence. This range usually lies below 30%, and we normally prefer to use between 4 and 20% by weight of the organic ionic detergent.

The compounds may be incorporated in the detergent composition at any suitable stage of the production of the composition. It is obvious that any processing after such incorporation should not involve conditions in which an appreciable proportion of the compounds would volatilise or decompose. Thus, if a detergent powder is to be produced by the well-known process of spray-drying a slurry, any compoundliable to volatilise or decompose under the spray-drying conditions should be added to the resultant powder and not to the slurry.

The improvement in the persistence of the lather during washing at the usual concentrations achieved according to the invention is generally more marked in soft water than in hard. This is to be expected, since most soapless detergents and compositions containing them give a more persistent lather in hard water than in soft. Some ionic detergents and compositions containing them now on the market give a lather in hard water which has a persistence during washing of such an order that no demonstrable improvement may result from the addition of compounds according to the invention when the composition containing these detergents is used in hard water. Noticeable improvement in soft water may, however, often be obtained even with such compositions, provided a suitable amount of the compounds is incorporated. The invention makes it possible not only to improve the persistence of the lather during washing of a given composition, but also to provide a detergent composition which gives a lather of similar persistence to that given by a detergent composition containing a greater proportion of detergent.

The improvement achieved according to the invention is particularly marked with detergent compositions containing certain sulphonated alkylaryl hydrocarbon detergents, such as the sodium salt of a sulphonated dodecyltoluene in which the alkyl group is derived from tetrapropylene polymer, but noticeable improvements may also be obtained with compositions containing other sulphonated alky'laryl hydrocarbons, such as, for instance, the sodium salt of a sulphonated dodecylbenzene in which the alkyl groups are derived from either tetrapropylene polymer or kerosene, or other anionic soapless detergents, such as alkyl sulphates.

When compounds according to the invention are incorporated in ionic detergent compositions containing, in addition to an organic soapless anionic detergent, an alkali metal salt of a fatty acid (soap), it has been noted that some of the compounds described are capable of making good the depression in lathering power caused when soap is admixed with organic anionic soapless detergents. It has also been noted that the addition of the compounds to compositions containing soap and an organic anionic soapless detergent reduces the amount of soapless detergent which is necessary substantially to eliminate scum formation when the composition is used in hard water; in particular this applies to compositions in bar form.

Organic ionic soapless detergents are usually employed in the form of their salts. They may be used alone or, in many cases, admixed with one another. Commonly, they are used in admixture with inorganic or organic diluents or builders, such as sulphates, silicates, carbonates, phosphates, and salts of carboxymethylcellulose. It has been found that the improvement in the persistence of the lather during washing is more marked with compositions containing such builders, in particular phosphates such as pyrophosphates, for example, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, or tripolyphosphates, for example, pentasodium tripolyphosphate.

A detergent composition according to the invention may have any of the physical forms in which detergent compositions are commonly marketed.

The following examples illustrate the invention.

Example 1 A detergent powder was prepared which contained 21.5% by weight of the sodium salt of a commercial sulphonated dodecyltoluene (derived from tetrapropylene polymer) 22.5% by weight of tetrasodium pyrophosphate 56.0% by weight of other inorganic builders.

This will be referred as Powder A.

Powders B and C only differed from powder A in containing the amount shown of caprylylresorcinol monoalpha-g-lycerol ether and a correspondingly smaller amount of inorganic builders other than sodium pyrophosphate.

Powder B contained 1.5% by weight of the ether Powder C contained 2.0% by weight of the ether Powder A washed 6 plates Powder B washed 1l12 plates Powder C Washed 14-15 plates Example 2 A detergent powder was made up of the following formulation 25 parts by weight of a commercial sodium secondary alky l sulphate 25 parts by weight of tetrasodium pyrophosphate 50 parts by weight of sodium sulphate.

Dish-washing tests similar to those described in Example 1 to compare this control powder with a powder which in addition contained 2 parts by weight of caprylylresorcinol mono-alpha-glycerol ether were carried out in waters of 4 and 24 hardness. The concentration of organic ionic detergent in the test solution was about 0.05%. The results obtained were:

Number of plates washed in- Water of water of 4 hard- 24 hardness ness Control 3-4 5-6 Control 2 parts by weight ether... 10 12 I claim:

1. A detergent composition consisting essentially of an alkyl aryl sulfonate detergent and from 1 to 30% by weight of the detergent of a non-detergent compound which improves the persistence during washing of the lather given by aqueous solutions of the composition at the concentrations of detergent normally employed, said compound being an acyl phenol monoether having the general formula:

RCO being an acyl radical derived from a saturated fatty acid and containing in all between six and ten carbon atoms and R'-OH being a radical derived from a polyhydric alcohol having from two to four carbon atoms selected from the group consisting of ethylene glycol, glycerol and diethylene glycol.

2. A detergent composition consisting essentially of an alkyl aryl sulfonate detergent and from 1 to 30% by weight of the detergent of a non-detergent compound which improves the persistence during washing of the lather given by aqueous solutions of the composition at the concentrations of detergent normally employed, said Compound being an acyl phenol monoether having the general formula:

RCO being an acyl radical derived from a saturated fatty acid and containing in all between six and ten carbon atoms and R'-OI-I being a radical derived from a polyhydric alcohol having from two to four carbon atoms selected from the group consisting of ethylene glycol, glycerol and diethylene glycol.

3. A detergent composition according to claim 2, in which the proportion of the lather-improving compound lies within the range of 4 to 20% by weight of the alkyl aryl sulfonate detergent present.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,688,085 Gross July 27, 1937 2,213,477 Steindorfif Sept. 3, 1940 2,233,381 De Groote Feb. 25, 1941 2,477,383 Lewis July 26, 1949 2,595,300 Safrin May 6, 1952 

1. A DETERGENT COMPOSTION CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF AN ALKYL ARYL SULFONATE DETERGENT AND FROM 1 TO 30% BY WEIGHT OF THE DETERGENT OF A NON-DETERGENT COMPOUND WHICH IMPROVES THE PERSISTENCE DURING WASHING OF THE LATHER GIVE BY AQUEOUS SOLUTION OF THE COMPOSITION AT THE CONCENTRATIONS OF DETERGENT NORMALLY EMPLOYED, SAID COMPOUND BEING AN ACYL PHENOL MONOETHER HAVING THE GENERAL FORMULA: 